For some, like James and Gumdrop, it doesn't matter, they'll swim without wetsuits no matter what. (Are they human?) For others, it means wetsuits, booties, lots of caps, and a slow and painful entry into the water (putting the face in is the hardest part). And then there are the wimps like me and Perry, who just don't want to be that cold.

The good news: there is still plenty of warm surface water in the lake, so a change in winds and currents could warm it up as quickly as it cooled down.

And despite the cold water, we had a great "100th Consecutive Day" swim, and nothing warms the innards after a cold swim than a shot or two of Killepitsch. Then it was out to the Pizza Kitchen for more protein and fat to fuel the furnace.

So let's hope for warmer water, but even if it doesn't come we've already shattered all previous records for swimming this summer. Any more would just be more icing (pun intended) on the cake.

The 2010 Killipitsch Swim Streak Counter is about to roll over to three digits. Yes, we've swum one hundred consecutive days, every day since May 23rd, shattering all previous records! This is cause (or maybe an excuse) for a celebration. In addition to our regular Monday morning swim we'll have an evening swim at 6:30PM, followed by a celebratory toast (or two) and then out to eat. Cap'n and Diablo will demonstrate that new song and dance sensation, the Lake Michigan Shiver.

What a great summer it's been. And there's still lots of great swimming to come! Come help us celebrate.

Whitecaps covered Whitefish Bay today, making for a rough ride. Waves were only two foot, but they seemed to be coming from every direction, pushing against you one second, swamping you from behind the next. I rarely, if ever, swallow water when I swim, but today I did several times. We were tossed, turned, bleached, blended, knotted, tie dyed, spun, and hung out to dry.

For all the great conditions, we have yet to do a Big Bay swim, even though we've gone further than that in the other direction. Conditions permitting, perhaps we can try this weekend. It's just a bit over a mile one way. The options would be to swim one way, and then drive or run back (bring some stuff to stash at the other end), or swim both ways.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The swimming has been so fantastic that there's hardly time for blogging. Swimming at Klode is only the beginning, it's also been the Pirates Plunge, going out to eat, pounding shots of Killepitsch, howling at the moon, doing Blondie's pop quiz. More and more swimmers are joining us. This has gone beyond just an informal swim group. We're establishing a whole Lake Michigan Swim Culture. We have our own beach, our own nicknames, our own beverage, our own jokes, our own slang. All we need is someone to start singing songs about us.

Irony Dept: Our "Howl at the Full Moon Century Swim" was a great success, even though the star of the show decided not to show, preferring to hide behind the clouds. But there he was, in all his glory, setting in the western sky on Wednesday morning when we arrived on the beach before sunrise, more than a bit groggy from last night's swim and post-swim feast. I think he was howling at us, rather than us howling at him.

By the way, I aced Blondie's quiz. I believe I was the only one to do so, despite everyone else trying to cheat. I await my trophy. Blondie, if you send me the quiz I'll post it, it was very clever.

Also, a number of you have been taking pictures, if you have any good ones send them to me and I will post them.

Kudos to "Pirate Steve" for pulling off a first rate event. Except for a glitch on getting bags back to the beach, everything was terrific. There were an amazing number of boats and jet skis providing support. I don't understand why there weren't more swimmers. This has got to be one of the most fun new events in some time.

The big waves and currents added to the fun (at least that's my opinion). The start boat was rolling heavily in the swells, and so it felt really good to walk the plank and get in the water. The water was very clear and clean. I swam directly towards the finish line the whole time, but about halfway through I realized that I was no longer swimming perpendicular to the beach, but at a good angle, the current had pushed me well south. I wonder how far I really went?

Afterwards we celebrated with a shot of Killepitsch, and breakfast at Ma Fischers. Beth, Kahuna, and I could not pass up the Sunday morning Bloody Marys, and before we left Cap'n held a pistol to our heads, and gave us a choice between a shot, or a shot to the head. What could we do?

Friday, August 20, 2010

If you wish to car pool, meet at 6:30AM at the south end of Bradford Beach, near the Northpoint Custard Stand

Last Swim: Fri 8/20 5:45AM

Water Temp: 67

Waves: One Foot Rollers

Water Clarity: Mostly Clear, but some murky spots near shore

Crew: Cap'n, Diablo, Ramrod, Padre, Gumdrop, Kahuna, Patriarch

Sometimes words fail. I mean how do I explain Kahuna trying to walk on the bottom carrying a large rock? Or Diablo chasing grasshoppers on the beach? Or Gumdrop's budgie smuggler? Well if you really want to know what a budgie smuggler is, you can Google it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Wow! Fourteen swimmers on the beach this morning! A new record, at least for a weekday morning. I mean who gets up before dawn to swim in cold Lake Michigan? I guess insanity is contagious. Speaking of dawn, the sun is coming up later each morning, which means it rises during our swim, which is very cool. Maybe that's one of the reasons we do this?

Here is the latest on the Great Klode Park Controversy:

http://www.whitefishbaynow.com/news/100952269.html

Here's my plan if they ever come after us for being too loud in the morning: I'll plea bargain, become a highly paid informant and turn in Cap'n for rowdiness, obscenity, partial nudity, drinking in the park, piracy, disturbing the peace, bad jokes, and SWI.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Another day of clear calm water. This has been an amazing summer so far, the water has been much warmer, clearer, and calmer than last year. We haven't had a single day of two or more foot waves. It's fun to swim in calm water, but it's fun to play in the waves too, so I hope I'm not jinxing anything by wishing for some wave action.

Coming Events:

Sunday is Pirates Plunge: http://www.piratesplunge.com/

There is no transportation from the beach back to the boat launch, so I suggest we meet at Bradford Beach at 6:30 to take the water temp, plan strategy (mine is to hang on to Diablo's feet and have him tow me to shore), and form car pools to the start. Also, we should plan to go to breakfast afterwards. Any suggestions? I know Alterra is nearby, but maybe we want to go somewhere with heartier fare?

Also, next Tuesday evening will be a "Howl at the Full Moon Swim", and if all goes well, it will also be our 100th swim of the season. More than enough reason for a sip or two of our favorite beverage.

To our old friend James: I saw your blog comment. Glad to hear your shoulder is healing. Hope to see you on the beach soon. Bring Jessica and some of the other Schroeder masters with you.

A perfect summer's day brought out everyone. The beach was littered with swimmers, boaters, sunbathers, families, kayakers, young lovers, rock skippers, dogs, and dragonflies. On our way north we dodged between boats and the people swimming off of them. I stopped to talked to one group, who told me that Klode Beach and Whitefish Bay is the best kept secret in Milwaukee. I agree.

Perry's kids kept pace with us along the beach, and we swam skin well over a mile while the sun danced on the bottom. A big current made the return to the beach almost effortless. A special day.

Cheeezzzeee.... I take a few days off to nurse my sore back, and everything goes awry. Here's the crazy plan they concocted without me (and didn't post until 3AM this morning): get up before dawn on a foggy Saturday morning, to squeeze their sorry butts into wetsuits (despite the fact that the water is very warm), swim out to the weather buoy, over half a mile out, without even stopping along the way to view the spectacular shipwreck.

By contrast, here's what the civilized members of the group did today: a wonderful forty minute skin swim in very warm clear water, under warm sunny skies, in the afternoon, while wedding parties snapped their pictures on shore.

Day 3 without the Patriarch-o-meter...oh where-o-where is The Patriarch? This was probably another day where we probably could have gotten away without wearing wetsuits had the sun been up for the start of our swim. Once again we swam north up to the rockwall in back. Instead of logging another strip-n-dip Diablo and I decided to entertain the crew with a spectacular display of synchronized swimming.

Saturday morning Diablo, Kahuna and I plan to do a shipwreck swim from Atwater beach at 6am. Sunday the plan is to swim from Klode at 1pm.

We were once again greeted by a thick fog along the Klode shoreline. The fog, however, quickly burned off as the sun rose and the air temps began to rise towards today's forecasted high of 90.

This was day 2 without the Patriarch-o-meter. Initial toe tests indicated a temp in the low 60's but upon reflecting back on the moment I think we may have been a little biased towards wearing wetsuits this morning. Perhaps we should have paid attention to the signs which indicated that we didn't really want to wear our wetsuits today....such as realizing that you're still wearing your shorts as you're pulling on your wetsuit or discovering that your wetsuit is on backwards after struggling to pull the wetsuit over your feet. (...of course I won't name any names here...)

This morning's swim took us up to the rockwall and back. Upon arriving back at the beach, Diablo and I returned to the water minus our wetsuits to log a quick journey up to the north beach downspout.

For those who missed this morning's swim but enjoy the jovial conversations....here are a few of the topics that were brought up:

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Thick fog persisted this morning along the Klode shoreline. Unlike yesterday's fog which hovered just above the water but allowed you to see the tree tops this morning's fog was just the opposite. A faint rumble of a very distant thunder could be heard occasionally but glimpses of blue sky directly above reassured us that the storms were not upon us.

Without the Patriarch-o-meter this morning we were left to measure the water temp via an old fashioned dip of the toes. Not too bad but probably a tad bit too cold to go skin.

Not wanting to risk a sudden change in the weather we swam close to shore. Our journey this morning took us up to the Garage and down to south south beach before returning.

As a side note about this morning.....no Patriarch....no Marcella...no 21 bun salute...just lots of fog and jokes about Gumdrop, The Patriarch and Padre that upon second thought all had a similar theme. :)

It was very foggy this morning, so foggy that those of us the shallows had trouble seeing the swimmers further out. No problem - the Cap'n's evil laugh could probably be heard in Muskegon.

My brother and his family are visiting, so my schedule is a bit uncertain until they leave Saturday morning. But I know the others will carry on if I miss a swim. Especially Diablo, I believe he's been at every single swim!

Ah, what a fine day it was! ...well, that is unless you were in the water without a wetsuit. The initial reading from the Patriarch-o-meter read 59.9. It was taken between the two rock piles at Klode's south east beach. The water temp along Klode's southern most beach read 61. With sunny skies and an air temp in the mid 80's our initial assessment was that this would be one of those "colder by the rock pile" days.

Unfortunately (...especially for Gumdrop and San Diego Joe who swam without wetsuits...) the water temp away from Klode's rock piles was more like 55. Despite the cold water temps we still logged a northerly swim up to the rock wall and back.

To warm us back up and to celebrate our exceptional streak of good swimming fortune this summer we celebrated with a round, two, three or four of Killepitsch. When all was said and done we had consumed 29 shots of Killepitsch, emptied nearly 2 bottles of our sacred elixir and saw The Patriarch officially proclaim 2 new nicknames...Perry B. has now been officially dubbed "Padre" and Robin has been officially titled "Ramrod".

Due to the storms Monday morning our regularly scheduled 5:45am swim has been moved to 6:30PM. See you at Klode!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Upon the first dip of the toe in the water this morning one would have put the water temp around 60...at the most. The official reading from the Patriarch-o-meter though read 63. Still a bit cool for a skin swim...but being a tad bit unmotivated this morning we just couldn't muster enough energy to climb into our wetsuits. To make us feel better though...The Patriarch offered to proclaim what ever water temp would make us feel better. Without hesitation Diablo wished for a water temp of 67 and the Official Proclamation was made by the Patriarch: "67 it shall be!"

So a skin swim it was...all the way to Cedar grove for all but Kahuna who continued his journey northward after we had paused to contemplate whether or not to turn around.

Swim time for Sunday is 1pm. With an air temp forecasted to be in the 90's perhaps the water temps will be a tad bit more hospitable for a skin swim....if not though, The Patriarch has vowed to have some Killepitsch on hand to warm us up afterward!

The water temperature went from 73 on Sunday at 2PM, to 63 Monday morning, to 55 Monday evening, back up a little to 59 Tuesday morning. There were no big winds or currents to account for it. Just another example of how difficult it is to predict her moods. You never really know how she'll treat you until you show up on the beach. Just like every other woman I know. (Now we'll find out how many women read this blog)

Monday, August 2, 2010

Perhaps not as creepy as a strangle ole' man staring at you, or that strange ole' man who can remove his teeth at the blink of an eye....but I must admit there was something a little eerie this morning about The Patriarch's silent treatment of the group. Nare a word he did say the entire morning....not even to announce the water temp.

Now why, why would The Patriarch do this? Was it perhaps the result of going over board on grog last night? Or perhaps the result of deafening echos in his head from mermaids calling out to him? Most likely though....if I had to guess...it probably has to do with Blondie. I've been told that Blondie actually spells her name "T-R-O-U-B-L-E"....and that she is. Just ask The Patriarch....after all he knows everything. ...the only problem is, he's not talking.

As chilling as The Patriarch's silent treatment was this morning...perhaps even chillier was the fact that we logged a Cedar Grove and back skin swim with the water temp uncomfortably below our traditional threshold of 65. Amazing in some regards...but down right scary when you pause to consider who else swims at temps like this without a wetsuit. What's next for us...European cut Speedos??? YOWZA!!!